I don’t know how much I’ll keep writing in this as time goes on, but right now I have the time, and the need for an outlet, and maybe a need to write something more formal than an email and less structured than a test plan. I’m afraid there may be a good bit whining here for the next three weeks, but I promise to try to write about the good along with the bad.
At the moment, I’m....not a fish out of water, but a rower away from (unfrozen) water, a pilot away from VFR weather, and most of all, a woman away from her partner. I’m away from home on a business trip that started two months ago, and is scheduled to go for another month.
There are compensations to being here in central Massachusetts: cold and interesting weather, *great* radio, a client who’s easy to deal with. But I don’t find that they compensate for being away from home for so long. First and foremost, I don’t much like sleeping alone, without even cats to warm my feet. I referred earlier to my ‘partner’, because that’s the best word for what he is, though we’re legally married. I don’t need him at all; we don’t ‘complete’ each other, or any of the other cliches of romance. We’re together entirely because we want to be, and so far that’s been the basis for a happier and longer-lasting partnership than most others I’ve seen.
Also, there’s the rowing. I’ve been rowing on and off for a decade -- steadily for the first five years, then only occasionally when I moved to the desert there was no water nearby. Since the City of Tempe filled its man-made lake and started its rowing program, it’s been a major part of my life, both rowing and coaching. Since coming up here where all the lakes and rivers are frozen, I haven’t been able to row anywhere but in the gym...and it’s NOT the same.
This is especially frustrating because, in season, this part of the world is a rowing mecca. Boston, home of the largest rowing event in the world, the Head of the Charles, is less than an hour away (Massachusetts is a small state!). Worcester, where I’m working, has 3 or 4 collegiate programs and several Masters (age 27 or older) programs. Both fortunately and unfortunately, I’ll probably be gone before that starts back up. I’ve already missed enough training that I will not be able to row in the first spring regattas, though I will get to go out to watch one, in two weeks.
With all that, though, I’m sort of enjoying the northern winter -- it has a purity to it somehow, even in the middle of a city. And this whole state has an incredible amount of live music, folkie and otherwise. And even living in a hotel has its perks (someone to clean daily). But I’m ready to go home.
Posted by dichroic at March 8, 2001 04:31 PM